Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM is the Lens I use with my Canon 7D Mark 2. I have had problems with focusing in the past. I sent in my Lens to Canon for professional cleaning and re-adjustment to factory settings as a first step. Then when I received it back, I went through the camera settings, reset it to factory settings, reviewed all specific focus settings and set up C1, 2 and 3 for my bird photography needs. I increased the shutter speed to to correct for my errors — handshake, wind, casual stance and trigger happy moments. I still have challenges with blur but my photographer friends whom I go Birding with chalk it up to lack of time and focus due to being in a group rather than alone. When I am alone, I seldom have a problem with focus but I don’t see as many birds ... I apologize if I have replied to the wrong quote!
“... meant "Canon 5D Mark IV," I presume. You did not mention which lenses in your experience produce the inferior sharpness results. The way you word your post, I presume that all your lenses comparable to the Nikon lenses produce less sharpness. I presume you hand hold your camera and lens. I presume operator error.”

I presume one or more of your lenses have IS. If so, engage it. See if this change produces sharper images.

Study and apply effective hand-holding technique. This action could improve sharpness.

Press the shutter button slowly to release the shutter. Do not jab the shutter button. Jabbing the shutter button at slower shutter speeds will almost surely introduce some motion blur into your photographs.

You could try mounting your camera and lens on a tripod while using a remote release for the shutter. Assuming everything in order, your camera and lens should then give sharper results.

You could send your most-used lens to Canon repair for examination, to determine if it functions to factory standards. If it does, then you must seek elsewhere for the source of the problem.

Others here may offer more suggestions to help you gain images with the expected sharpness.

Good luck.[/quote]

I have used two zip lock bags hooked together at the seam - one right side out and one wrong side out. Zip lock together at the opening, slice one bag’s bottom seam so that you have good access to the camera controls and viewfinder; and, then cut a semi circle out of the bag the size of half the size of the lens hood at its widest plus about 1/2 inch allowance for popping the hood thru. This will cover a Canon 7D mark 2 with a 100-400L lens mounted. Then I take a wide produce elastics and secure one at the intersection of the hood to lens. I bring a second elastic with me in case I loose one or need to seal the bag closed on the camera end between uses. This system worked really well for 2 years and then I bought a storm jacket to use which allows access to the monopod mount. Good luck!

When traveling or heading out to my local NWR, I have my camera set up in a pacsafe travel gear back pack. They come in two backpack sizes, have cut proof straps, zipper locks, no name brand logos printed on their plain black exterior and are very well padded. I load my 6-7 pounds of camera gear into it plus a few personal items, a Sibley’s Birds Field Guide, binoculars, a full 24 oz water bottle in one exterior mesh pocket and an umbrella in the other and I can carry it several miles on foot. Finding the pacsafe equipment has helped me feel comfortable traveling internationally. And, yes, I still once in a while have to shake off the worry that I am carrying $$$$s of equipment on my person, especially when I move my camera to the shoulder sling. Have tons of fun!

LightRoom CC - raw; PSE & LR Mobile on iPhone and iPhoto for quick turn around on jPeg photos while traveling. *Saving as raw and jPeg on CF plus SD cards was a good idea but did not work out the way I thought it would while traveling.

Great questions ... for starters try this recommended by Eduardo del Solar who teaches Bird Photography at Mass Audubon: with equipment ready go out early in AM or late afternoon, practice taking BIF using Gulls or other birds that congregate in your area such as ducks at water treatment areas and practice! From my experience, try setting up your camera as others have suggested, sports mode or manual with shutter speed at 1/2000-1/2500, f/8 and auto ISO (100-6400 range that can be set in menu on Canon 7D M2), use as long a lens you can afford and steadily hand hold. Have fun!

Great suggestions ... may I add a couple more? We always used elevations such as wide stairs, a hillside or slope of beach and then if needed, kneeling and sitting folks in the front. A 3/4 turn giving better lighting on faces, etc., but still looking at the camera. I think that the depth of the group should be just slightly more shallow than the width to maximize focus at f/8.

I had someone respond to one of my opinion posts on post processing. It was clearly stated as my opinion and a person responded very curtly to me in a personal message - not on the forum. It made me uncomfortable enough to change my settings. I respect the right to withhold certain contact info based upon my experience.

Would iso 400, f/8 = 1/1600s shutter speed?
I usually use f/8, auto iso set to - 100-800, and 1/2000s. Then I recheck the light meter and adjust f/stop to f/7.1 or 6.3 or drop shutter 1/1600s. But that’s a lot of tinkering to do when that Rough-legged Hawk is hovering nearby!

For traveling, I use a 64gb SanDisk Extreme Plus AND a SanDisk Extreme Pro 64gb Compact Flash card. My Canon D7Mark2 can be set to record RAW files to Multiple Cards in Menu or via quick control screen on LCD monitor. They write 90/s and 120/s, respectively. I download the SD card via SD reader to my iPhone 7Plus each night and process fun photos of the day to post to FB or to eBird if I captured an image of a rarity. I carry an extra 32gb SD card and an extra battery, camera rain-jacket and lens cloth + microfiber for wiping down camera immediately of condensation or stray raindrops. I reformat in camera after downloading to LightRoom on my iMac when I get home, not before.

Yes, Bufflehead ... Common, small duck, winters on open water on bays in your area. Nice capture!

I don’t consider myself a lazy person or that disorganized. That being said, I have about 12k photos that are getting difficult to manage. The thought of spending 12+ hours reviewing and deleting makes me want to turn off the computer and just go for a walk ... with camera in hand, of course!

If I missed this in a previous comment, please excuse me ... did they just want the receipt number, scanned copy of the receipt, or what exactly did they need? Or could you have your DIL register it for you while you are holding on the phone? I know these questions may sound a little silly to some but I would be uncomfortable asking my DIL (she’s wonderful and kind but incredibly busy) for the original receipt. Just saying ...

I use a LightRoom CC subscription on my iMac desktop and Photoshop Express to process photos while traveling on my iPhone 7 Plus.
According to Scott Kelby’s book “the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC book for digital photographers,” LightRoom CC is the same as LightRoom 6.

I rely on the camera histogram to help me get the info I need to make exposure compensation adjustments while photographing birds and wildlife. I take test shots, check the histogram and adjust my manual settings for best exposure in the field. In post processing, I use LR’s histogram to aid in adjusting the exposure if needed and then I use the highlights slider to take care of blown out skies and super highlighted white spots on Snowy Egrets, etc.

Thank you for the helpful info! I might ‘need’ to stick with LR after retirement ...